Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said following Monday’s practice in Memphis that Kristaps Porzingis will not play on Tuesday against the Grizzlies, but that the plan is for him return and play Wednesday’s home game against New Orleans.
Carlisle said that both Porzingis and forward Maxi Kleber (right Achilles soreness) practiced on Monday, and that there is a chance Kleber could play on Tuesday. Kleber has missed the last four games. Even so, the Mavericks (40-28) have won 10 of their last 12 games and are riding a four-game winning streak.
Carlisle said Porzingis “has done very well over the last ten days, in terms of significant, gradual progress and so that’s a very good sign.”
Porzingis, speaking for Zoom on Monday to reporters for the first time since April 14, said being sidelined in recent weeks has been difficult and that he’s anxious to contribute to Dallas’ final week of the regular season and playoff push.
“It’s hard to be out watching the games without being able to be out there and play the game I love, but it is what it is,” he said. “I have to be healthy when I’m out there. I cannot be not at 100% when I’m out there, so just was putting in a lot of work, which is not fun always when you’re by yourself and just doing treatment and working out, lifting.
“It’s never as fun as being with the team, doing all the activities with the team, but that’s when I have to lock in and be a soldier and do my work to make sure I can be, as soon as possible, practicing like today with the guys and stuff. It’s a good feeling to getting back closer to being able to play, and it’s good the team’s playing well. That’s always good, and I look forward to adding more to what we’re doing right now.”
Porzingis declined to be specific about his recent knee soreness, in the same knee in which he had meniscus surgery in October. He said the left ankle sprain that he suffered prior to the knee soreness may have been a contributing factor.
“It’s weird because it started with the ankle,” he said. “Maybe it’s because you limp a little bit with the ankle and now the knee started bothering me a little bit. I’m not sure. I don’t want to give any medical what I have going on. I’ll leave that to the doctors. I’m just doing my part and make sure I’m healthy and that my legs are strong and I’m ready to go and that’s it. “So yeah, it is what it is. I look forward to this offseason, really, because it’s been a tough year for me.”
Tuesday’s game will be the seventh straight that Porzingis has missed since leaving the April 29 game at Detroit with right knee soreness. That was his first game back after missing three games due to a sprained left ankle.
Porzingis, 25, has played in 40 of the Mavericks’ 68 games this season (59%) and has missed six straight games; nine of the last 10; and 12 of Dallas’ last 21 outings.
Last season he played in 57 of Dallas’ 75 games (76%), most of them due to the Mavericks being cautious about his playing load in his first season back from suffering a torn ACL in his left knee in February of 2018.
This season Porzingis missed the first nine games while rehabbing from October surgery to repair a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee, an injury he suffered in the first half of Game 1 of Dallas’ playoff series against the Clippers in the Orlando bubble.
Porzingis was ejected during the third quarter of that game. He then played in Games 2 and 3 but was unable to play in that series’ final three games as Dallas fell 4-2. Porzingis and the Mavericks tried to avoid surgery by injecting his knee with platelet-rich plasma injections, but the pain and stiffness didn’t subside sufficiently.
After returning to games on Jan. 13, Porzingis during the ensuing four months missed 19 additional games for a variety of ailments. Six of the missed games were due to right knee injury recovery; three missed games from Feb. 22-25 were for lower-back stiffness; on April 5 he missed a game with a right wrist sprain.
Then on April 24, during the third quarter of a home victory over the Lakers, Porzingis suffered a left ankle sprain. He missed three games and returned on April 29 in Detroit, but after the third quarter he hobbled off the floor with right knee soreness.
The Mavericks have only four regular-season games in which to work Porzingis and Kleber back into the lineup and hope that they regain their stamina and rhythm before postseason play begins.
“Definitely better for him to get back and get some games under his belt before the playoffs start,” Carlisle said of Porzingis. “No question about that -- for conditioning, for chemistry, for rhythm, for things having to do with the system. With him now playing some four defensively, that when he’s guarding the four-men, coverage responsibilities are different, so it’s important to get those kinds of reps in in game situations as well as practice situations.”
